Mama Wolf
by angrymermaids
Summary: Sofie and Alesan never get tired of hearing stories about their brave adoptive mother, also known as the Dragonborn. But seeing her in action is something completely different.


A/N: Sorry to everyone who's been waiting forever for more ATLA fic. My muse is dead and buried.

HOWEVER, if you're into Skyrim, I've been writing quite a bit for the kink meme! Most of that is not going to be posted here, but you can find it on AO3.

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><p>"Look, uh..." Farkas ran a hand through his hair and paused for a long, tense moment. "I guess we shoulda had a talk about this a while ago."<p>

Sofie was still crying. Alesan, his face stony, looked at the pile of rubble that was once the front door rather than looking at his adoptive father or sister. Further out in the yard, Rayya fished a torn wall hanging out of another pile of rubble, looking vaguely annoyed, like the biggest thing to come out of this was the loss of décor. The chickens were squashed, the cow was in the woods somewhere, and Sceolang had run out to the edge of the lake to bark furiously at the remains of the giant who'd woken them all up.

A blood-curdling howl split the forest. Jostled from their branches, birds squawked. Sofie and Alesan flinched at the howl—Sofie stopped crying, but the terrified silence that replaced it was worse, in Farkas' opinion.

He sighed. "I'm not good at this. Your mom has the beast blood in her. She's a werewolf."

"We saw!" Alesan snapped, but he was trembling. "She's a monster!"

"She's the same as she always was," Farkas said, but it was small comfort. There really was no return from watching Elaname hunch over, sprout fur and fangs and then tear a giant limb from limb. Even if that giant had wanted to knock down the house. "She was just protecting you. That's what moms do. Even werewolf moms. Because when a hunter sees wolf pups, their mother's not far away and she'll die before she lets anything happen to them. And it's still the same the rest of the time, because even when she's an elf she's still a wolf-mom." He rubbed his forehead. "Talos. I'm not making any sense."

"You're doing fine," Rayya said as she carried an armful of scattered household items back through the hole in the wall that was their new door.

It was a few long minutes before anyone said anything else. Farkas kept trying and failing to put words in the right order, and every time Sofie tried to say anything she just started crying again. Alesan simply refused to speak. Eventually Farkas sighed, sat the children down on a fallen tree (one of several uprooted by the very recent Battle of Lakeview Manor), and crossed his arms.

"This'll be easier if I tell it in a story," he began, a little hesitant. "It starts with the first time I saw Elaname. It was in a field outside the Pelagia farm. We were fighting a giant then, too."

Sofie and Alesan could do nothing but listen.

Whenever they went into town, Sofie and Alesan heard stories about their mama. They'd heard them all before but whenever they heard her name, they couldn't help but sit at the bard's feet to hear them again, because they knew she was a hero and hearing it said for the hundredth time just made them more proud.

In Whiterun she was Elaname Bear-Crusher, Harbinger of the Companions, and it was said she could crack a giant's skull in her bare hands. Sofie and Alesan believed it. Their mama was seven feet tall if she was an inch, a full head taller than Papa, and her arms rippled with muscles like steel cords. Those arms gave the best hugs.

In Solitude she was mighty Legate Elaname, Hero of the Empire, Unifier of Skyrim. In Windhelm the stories were less frequent, but the dark elves called her their champion. In Riften and Markarth, people weren't afraid of the streets when she was there.

All across Skyrim, she was the Dragonborn. The One They Fear. Even _dragons_ trembled before her.

And at home, she was just Mama. Who laughed a lot and always made really good ham and whose hands were always busy doing something. Who brushed Sofie's hair without pulling any knots and who always came back from her trips with candy and toys in her pack. She giggled when Farkas called her beautiful and was the first person in the family to bring home little kittens or orphaned fox cubs or baby birds.

It was barely dawn that morning when the ground started shaking.

"GRAAAH! GUK LUG UGH!"

A crash. Heart pounding, Sofie threw aside her covers and ran across to Alesan's bed. He was hiding under the blankets and whimpered a little when she briefly uncovered his head to join him.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"A giant."

"But... why is it _here_?" She had seen giants in the distance, herding their mammoths, largely unconcerned with the little people of Skyrim unless they trespassed. They didn't bother people.

They both shrieked when a massive bone club shattered the wall right in front of them, splinters of wood and plaster showering their blanket shelter. The club pulled back and through the hole in the wall they could see a massive, bearded head with small, dull eyes staring right at them. The giant raised his club again.

"Run!" Sofie said. She grabbed Alesan's hand and pulled him out from under the blanket, racing down the stairs to where Papa and Rayya were running up to meet them. Mama was nowhere to be seen.

Another crash. The whole front door caved in. One stomp from a massive foot brought the wall down as well, and then the giant towered over them, brandishing his club and bellowing.

"Kids, run to the cellar, all right?" Papa said, his voice as slow and calm as ever. He was still dressed for bed but carried the wicked ebony mace that usually hung on the wall, unused. In his hand it looked like it weighed nothing.

Before either of them could move, a blood-curdling howl split the air. Mama, running out unarmed to face the giant, the beast exploding out of her golden skin, her face elongating, her hands and feet twisting into massive, clawed paws while she bared jagged yellow fangs in a ferocious snarl. Only her eyes remained the same, burning pools of copper trained on the giant, never looking even away even as she leaped forward and tore into the huge creature like he was nothing more than a creaky old draugr.

In that moment, the stories about their mighty mother were a little too real.

"...And so I was cured, but she didn't want to," Farkas was saying. "I didn't understand. But now I think I kinda get it. If there was a way she could protect the people she loves, she didn't want to give it up. Even if it makes her cranky sometimes. And even if it's not pretty like it sometimes sounds when a bard sings about it. She was just protecting you."

Right on cue, Sceolang came trotting back up the hill, tail wagging furiously. He had what looked like a large toe clamped in his teeth. Farkas rubbed his ears, called him a good boy, and threw the toe across the yard for the dog to fetch.

"She'll be back any minute now," Rayya said. She walked back out of the house with a folded blanket over one arm. The howling had stopped.

The trees rustled. A huge beast, at once wolf-like and not, prowled out on all fours, shaggy black fur matted with blood and dirt and tangled with leaves and twigs. It—_she—_paused a short distance from the house, panting, looking with eerie understanding at the house, the children, Rayya, and finally Farkas, who approached her with the blanket, unafraid. She huffed a little sigh, not unlike a sound Sceolang would have made, and rested her massive head on Farkas' shoulder. He tenderly tucked the blanket around her huge shoulders and beckoned to Sofie and Alesan.

"Come on over, kids. It's all right."

They both hesitated. Sofie went first and Alesan wasn't far behind. They stopped short when Elaname looked straight at them with eyes both beast-like and elf-like. She gave a little whine. Somehow it was that that made them come closer, close enough to touch her fur, close enough that they could see the individual strands retreat as she shrank in on herself. The claws blunted and her muzzle flattened into the proud aquiline nose and full lips that kissed their foreheads goodnight.

She tugged the blanket around her body and lifted her head. Her long dark hair was tangled and dirty, her eyes tired, but she smiled as warmly as ever.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. Sofie went in immediately for a hug. Alesan hung back for a moment, kicking shyly at the dirt, but when Elaname extended her other arm, he accepted her embrace without hesitation. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just didn't want you to get hurt."

"It's all right, Mama."


End file.
